There Are No Silver Bullets, but There Are Swords

I'm writing this on the afternoon of my first day back to teaching after a nice winter break. And merely one day back into the thick of it, my body is telling me that, indeed, teaching is work.

This isn't my first goat rodeo, though. As the week matures, I know I'll re-acclimate to the pace, to the thousands of daily interactions with hundreds of people (I'm an introvert — that's a lot of interacting), to the thousands of decisions a teacher's day requires, to building relationships with kids and colleagues, to the paperwork, to the frustration of desiring so much for a kid and seeing that, today too, he's not quite ready to fully own his education.

The silly thing is, there's a part of me that somehow expected a work schedule to make today all unicorns and rainbows and “Wow, my blood must be lightning because I got some energy, baby!” But sitting down to write this, I chuckle at that silly, unspoken expectation that I brought into today because there simply aren't any silver bullets for our work.

So: if you tried a work schedule today and it didn't work well (mine didn't do super hot), dust yourself off. That's part of getting better. As Daniel Coyle says in The Little Book of Talent(one of my favorite reads of 2014):

There is a place, right on the edge of your ability, where you learn best and fastest. It's called the sweet spot. [When you're in your sweet spot, you'll feel] frustration, difficulty, alertness to errors. You're fully engaged in an intense struggle — as if you're stretching with all your might for a nearly unreachable goal, brushing it with your fingertips, then reaching again.

Feel like you failed today? Take heart: Coyle goes on to say that when we're in our sweet spot, we'll only be successful 50-80 percent of the time.

Yet cling to this: theories can be swords

Theories can't be silver bullets, but when we understand that getting better at teaching requires working in our sweet spots (and therefore experiencing failure 20-50 percent of the time on a given skill), they can be swords.

21 Responses to There Are No Silver Bullets, but There Are Swords

Thanks, Dave for the reality check and the clip from Napoleon Dynamite put a big smile on my face. That’s one of my favorite movies – hilarious . . . and sad that most of your freshmen have never seen it. Does that mean we’re that old now?

Dave, I can’t thank you enough for this post. You have put into elegant, vulnerable prose the truth of our daily lives. If we are to be right on that edge where we are efforting at our best and truest, we are going to tip over sometimes. I think of it as tree pose in yoga. You can find a way to avoid tipping, but then you aren’t stretching. When you stretch, you are working the pose. Therefore, you will tip. It’s how you recover and respond to the tip that allows you to become stronger and better balanced. We need to allow ourselves permission to stretch, tip, and recover. Thank you for you beautiful reminder.

“…the frustration of desiring so much for a kid and seeing that, today too, he’s not quite ready to fully own his education.”
I cried over this very thing just yesterday — thank you so much for the encouragement!!! You’re totally right. Let’s dust ourselves off!! We’ve got this! Or…we’re GONNA get this! 🙂

Education has become overgrown by too many priorities. We need to use our swords to prune our education gardens. This does not come without something or someone being critical of our work as teachers. Pruning makes every bit of sense to create a bountiful harvest of fruit in the long run. Best comments I get from former students are five and ten years down the road when they come back and tell me thanks for making them produce quality work.

Thanks Dave for another reality check. I hit the ground running yesterday, leaving my students in the dust. I had to laugh when I came home because I gave them absolutely no grace period to acclimate and I found myself totally exhausted last night. Today was another day and with one less cup of coffee I was able to take a step back and give them and me a break. We connected and set goals today. This was totally self imposed stress but like you said teaching is about setting limits and not getting it right all the time.
Karen

Thanks again for the powerful idea of keeping a strict schedule. I spent this week dedicated to keeping a strict schedule, and what I’ve found is that I have more energy. I know it’s only been a week, and I did make a few variations for myself. I decided to try the 7-5:20 schedule, but truth be told, I get to school at 6:30. I like the morning hours when nobody is around, yet. Also, I allow myself to make up time. For example, if I have an appointment that takes me away from school before 5:20, I am allowed to make up the time. I don’t have younger children that need attention when I get home. My children are 16 and up. But, I set a timer for myself, and I put it away when time is up. As you predicted, I’ve become more efficient. I am more smart about my prep time, and because I am not working late into the night, I can spend time with my kids at dinner, go to yoga, or make other healthier choices. It’s only been a week, so I can’t say it’s a habit, yet. But, I am beginning to feel like a human again. Thanks again.
BTW, you might not remember, but I am part of the Learning Leaders in my school. I had told you that I was not happy about the direction we were going (technology and PBL), but over the break I rather impulsively bought “Focus” by Mike Schmoker for all the learning leaders, and happily my AP got on board. Now, we have some planning to do for our PD. I’d love any tips that you might have to offer about implementing this model.

1) Your runthrough of how setting a work schedule is working for you and the tweaks you’re making to it; I love, too, that you’re adapting it to your life situation (e.g., with older kids). Comments like yours make the hours I put into this blog well, well rewarded.

A) The more people who can read and get on board, the better.
B) Keep it simple. His authentic redundant literacy template is the bomb. Allow people to get awesome at that template.
C) Count texts. How many texts are kids going to read in X class during Y time period? How much will they write? What will they write? How often will they speak? Etc. Quantify the number of reps you want kids to have in their classes (or at least in yours).

I clicked this post because it reminded me of the fact that in the chapter Revelation in the Bible, the sword of God is His Word. This aside, the topic of this post is something that I have been reflecting on quite a lot in the last week. It seems easy, as the teacher, to put a lot of pressure on yourself in search for the silver bullet lesson plan or trick of the sleeve that will enlighten dozens of students with just one fell swoop. I liked the fact that you embrace the high failure rate that occurs in this profession. It confirms the conclusion that I had previously reached–experience is the best teacher–by using positive and empowering imagery.